At the K-street happy hour tonight, there was terrific energy about how the New York Magazine had portrayed the POTUS as a friend of Israel. The WH crowd is totally solid on re-election. The staffing in Chicago is complete. Ditto for nationwide offices.

The 2012 campaign is handicapped for GOP. They have not started, but the POTUS has already finished. The first 100-day plan for the 2nd term has now had the 2nd version.

The theme of re-election: Tick of the Clock by the Chromatics (Drive, the movie).

So, if all the Taliban fighters in Afghanistan go home and tend their fields for a couple of years and hide their guns, won't we leave them alone, declare victory and go home? Then they can come back in year three and deal with some corrupt government in Kabul.

If that represents the worst case scenario for them, how can they lose?

I think the city and county should send more money to the Coliseum for explansion than to the Overture Center. Why prop up a venue -- Overture -- that is something that only people in University Heights and Vilas feel good about?